Питање Ђердапa између два свјетска рата
The Đerdap Issue Between the Two World Wars

Summary/Abstract: After the First World War the Danube issue became more visible on the European diplomatic scene. Due to its specific position the Kingdom of Yugoslavia took an active part in it. Its prominent role came from the fact that the riparian area of the Đerdap sector, the most complex part of the Danube flow, as well as the Sip Canal which was the key point for navigation through the Đerdap Gorge (Iron Gates) was on Yugoslav territory. A few important issues were discussed in the interwar period. The first was the issue of administrating Đerdap. Since the end of the WWI it was internationally administered and the Đerdap Administration as a Yugoslav-Rumanian administrative body was established only in 1933 under the auspices of the International Danube Commission. The issue of ownership of the Sip Canal permeated the Yugoslav-Rumanian interwar relations and was not completely resolved until the collapse of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Navigation through this strategically exceptionally important canal was conducted by Yugoslav owned locomotives that pulled the ships. The most complex issue from the corpus of the Đerdap issues was the exploitation of water power and the confining of Đerdap by building a dam. Despite the existing plans of both Yugoslavia and Rumania they were not realized while the two countries were kingdoms. All four of the basic issues concerning Đerdap in the interwar period were solved only at the beginning of the 70s of the 20th century when the Sip canal and locomotive traction were sunk becoming part of the Đerdap lake when the Đerdap I Hydroelectric Power Station was built, hydro power exploitation began and the last variant of the Đerdap administration was dissolved.

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